Will the Wings trade?

I am not a trade wizard and I never will claim to be one, but in this post I will try to summarize some speculation regarding the Detroit Red Wings and the upcoming trade deadline (3pm on February 27th).

Yesterday, Joey MacDonald was placed on waivers. While this will alleviate $117,000 in salary cap space, the move was done because goaltenders Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood are now both healthy and can practice. MacDonald wasn’t getting the practice time to make it worthwhile for him to stay in Detroit.

“Every goalie in our organization is healthy now, and Joey needs to play,” Holland said. “We know by putting him on waivers there is a risk he is claimed, but if he stays around here — we’re down to the month of March, and we have a lot of games. We don’t have a lot of practice time. When we do practice, Hasek takes one net and Osgood the other because he wants to be ready. Joey grabs 10 minutes at the end of practice.”

Bill Khan at MLive.com also noted the following:

Holland said it would be difficult for MacDonald to get playing time with Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League. The Red Wings will try to get MacDonald hooked up with another AHL team before the league’s Thursday roster deadline or look for an opening in the East Coast Hockey League.

GM Ken Holland is actively looking for a forward and it’s been rumored that Keith Tkachuk and Bill Guerin, who both play for the St. Louis Blues, are the leading candidates. However, it seems that the price is very high for potential rental players since they both become unrestricted agents this summer and could very well leave the team after the playoffs. Holland isn’t willing to pay the current price and is hoping that the price will fall closer to deadline. If this does not happen, we may not see a big trade this season for the Wings.

“There are prices we won’t pay,” Holland said before the Red Wings hosted the Edmonton Oilers at Joe Louis Arena.

“We’ll just sit on the sidelines and do nothing. I’m hearing that Monday or Tuesday as we get closer to the deadline and teams are sitting with players, prices will come down. If the prices don’t come down, we’re just going to sit on the sidelines and go into the playoffs with this team. It’s ridiculous right now.”

As much as I would love to see a big trade happen (maybe that’d fire up our fanbase a little), I certainly don’t want Holland to give the farm away so hopefully those prices will come down a bit. I’m going to my first Wings road game in Chicago on Tuesday and I’m hoping to see a new face in a red and white jersey.

“I’m doing lots of talking, we have lots of irons in the fire,” Holland said. “Nothing is imminent. Are we going to make a deal? I don’t know. It depends if the price is right. We’ll see.

“If we don’t do anything, we don’t do anything. If we find a deal we think improves our team, we’ll do it. But we’re not going to make a bad deal just because everybody thinks we need to do something.”

St. Louis Blues’ president John Davidson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the team is not close on deals for either Guerin or Tkachuk.

“We had conversations again (Friday), and again there’s nothing there yet that’s finalized by any means,” Davidson said. “When I say finalized, I mean we may trade, we may not trade. That’s not been totally decided yet.”

Davidson denied a rumor that the Blues had a deal in place to trade Guerin to the New York Islanders.

When reached Friday, Guerin said he hadn’t heard anything. The same goes for Tkachuk, who is heavily rumored to be heading to Detroit or Atlanta. The Red Wings attempted to clear some salary from their payroll Friday when they placed backup goalie Joey MacDonald on waivers.

“I’m like everybody else, waiting to see what’s going to happen,” Tkachuk said. “I’m getting ready to play Sunday in Chicago. Whatever happens, happens.”

Lyle Richardson at Spector’s Hockey wrote about the Western Conference teams in his most recent Soapbox. Here’s what he said about the Wings:

DETROIT RED WINGS. Remain one of the top clubs in the West, thanks (as always) to a good mix of veteran talent and rising young stars. It’s believed management will try to bolster their scoring depth by the trade deadline, but even if unsuccessful there’s enough talent on this team to keep them among the best in the league.

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Posted in: Wings News | | February 2007

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